Still on Maku’s governance tour

SIR: In the name undertaking tours and other ingenious devices, public office holders often empty the public coffers. It does not matter that for all intents and purposes, the tour has no direct, indirect, immediate or future relevance. It does not matter either if it is at the expense of basic infrastructure for the people. What matters most is what they stand to gain individually or collectively as we have witnessed in the character of many public office holders.

Though Nigerians have suffered for so long from the malaise, it appears the culture is not about to be retired.

A case in point is the round-the-country good governance tour being undertaken by Minister of Information, Labaran Maku alongside over 120 others. The absurdity of the whole exercise was recently brought to the fore when Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole told a bewildered audience in Benin City, the state capital, that the minister sent him a proposal to the effect that the state should bankroll the expenses incurred by the group on its cameo trip to the state.

As it is in Edo State, Nigerians, so it is in other states where the people are already aware of what their governments have done or failed to do in terms of good governance. Beyond the possibility of reaping substantial financial largesse from all the states toured, what other impact does Maku’s good governance tour intend to have on the people?

Despite being harassed by debilitating challenges, Nigerians have not lost sight of the fact that Maku is a federal subject on a federal mission. They are aware that the mission cannot be of any more benefit to the states other than for the federal government using it as a publicity stunt for its vaunted transformation agenda. The federal government is not known to undertake altruistic projects; certainly not for states governed by opposition parties. Nigerians are therefore wondering why it is not only undertaking this unnecessary tour but also coercing the states to fund it.

Maku ought to have answered this question first before sending funding proposals to state governments.

It is no surprise that Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka expressed profound happiness that Comrade Oshiomhole dismissed Maku and his good governance funding proposals. The time has come for public office holders to stop being frivolous in the manner they handle public funds. The Oshiomhole example is heart-warming and Nigerians expect other state governors who have not swallowed the good governance bait to distance themselves from committing their state resources to fund it.